Finger protector for cigarette smokers



May 5, R936. T. E. HATCH" FINGER PROTECTOR FOR CIGARETTE SMOKERS Filed Feb. '7, 1933 THERUN E.HATGH- Fig.8.

(Ittomeg 5 Patented May 5, 1936 UNITED STATES FINGER PROTECTOR FOR CIGARETTE SMOKERS Theron E. Hatch, Upper Arlington, Ohio; Dora E. Hatch, administratrix of said Theron E. Hatch, deceased, assignor to C. R. Kimmel Application February 7, 1933, Serial No. 655,672

1 Claim.

Lately the smoking of cigarettes has become a fad among women. However, I have observed that most women are somewhat annoyed by the staining or discoloration of their fingers or gloves and the lips due to the deposit thereon of smoke or nicotine emanating from the cigarette in the process of smoking.

The object of the present invention is to provide convenient and economical protectors whereby the staining or discoloration can be largely or entirely prevented. As a woman may smoke a considerable number of cigarettes during the day or on social occasions, as for example, at a card party, a dance, during a drive or other entertainment a further object is to provide a convenient and economical pad or package containing a considerable number of the protectors referred to so that when a fresh cigarette is taken a fresh protector shall be at hand for application to the cigarette.

The invention is embodied in the examples herein shown and described, the feature of novelty being finally claimed.

Figure l is a plan view of the blank for holding pads or plurality of protectors.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the protector holder with said protectors secured therein.

Fig. 3 is a section on the line III-III, looking to the left, Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of a protector blank.

Fig. 5 is a view of the protector.

Fig. 6 is a view of an end of a protector on a larger scale and in substantially closed position to further illustrate the details of its construetion.

Fig. '7 is an isometric perspective view of the protector in open position.

Fig. 8 is a side view of a protector applied to a cigarette.

The protector is preferably made of thin paper of tight texture, the blank therefor, being of the trapezoid form shown in Fig. 4 scored longitudinally by a plurality of lines I and perforated or punched with a transverse line I I near its base to render the protector easily tearable thereacross. The blank is provided at one longitudinal edge with a lip l2 that is pasted to the opposite edge of the blank (see Fig. 6) thereby forming a tapering tube that is initially produced fiat as shown in said Fig. 6.

The protector is expanded for application to an end of a cigarette as shown in Figs. '7 and 8 by opposing pressures exerted on the opposite edges of the protector when the protector, as shown in Figs. and 6 is placed between the thumb and forefinger of the smoker. This expansion of the protector is facilitated by the scoring.

The holder for the protectors is made from a blank of thin card board of the contour shown in Fig. 1, said blank being scored in parallel vertical lines l4, l4; and on a horizontal line I5 at the junction of a tongue I3 with the body of the blank so as to be readily foldable on said lines.

The two wings of cover portions of said blank body beyond said lines l4, M are provided with a slot I6 and tongue IT, as shown, the tongue to be entered into the slot in the completed article to loosely latch said cover portions together.

Little packs of the protectors, while flat, are secured in the holder by turning the tongue l3 onto the bases of the stacks and fastening said tongue and the protectors to the body of the holder by ordinary metal staples l8, l8, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The horizontal perforations or scorings II are nearly coincided with the upper edge of the tongue l3, as shown in Fig. 2, so that the removal of a protector is facilitated by said upper edge by drawing the protector in tearing fashion across said edge.

In practice a protector is removed from the package and applied to the unignited cigarette as depicted in Fig. 8 and held between the fingers at the protector by the smoker. In this way the fingers need never touch the body of the cigarette during or after its ignition because when smoking is completed both the cigarette stub and the protector can be thrown away.

The material of the protector can be of any variety that is adapted for the purpose but it should be substantially impervious, at least for ordinary duration of a smoke, to prevent the passage of smoke or nicotine through the material of the protector to soil the fingers whether they be naked or gloved. The material of the package of the protector, if of paper, so called, can be of the oiled or paraffined variety.

The material, the forms, number and arrangement of the parts can be changed without departing from the gist of the invention as claimed.

What I claim is:

An article of manufacture including a container of flexible material, a pad therefor .consisting of a plurality of collapsed cigarette holders of paper substantially impervious to smoke, said cigarette holders each having a transverse tearing line near one of its ends, and fastening means securing said plurality of cigarette holders to said container between said tearing line and the near end of said holders whereby said cigarette holders may be removed for smoking purposes one at a time from said container.

THERON E. HATCH. 

